Memo to Obama’s Closest Advisers: Better Not Mention That Plot Twist in ‘Breaking Bad.’ Plus Other Shows the President Watches

What does the president of the United States watch on TV? The New York Times’ Michael D. Shear reports that President Obama is drawn to dark, edgy dramas such as “Game of Thrones” and “Boardwalk Empire."

“These days, when Mr. Obama retreats to the White House residence after a long day on the other end of the colonnade, he is working his way through the DVD box set of AMC’s ‘Breaking Bad,’ the award-winning TV drama about a drug-dealing high school teacher,” the story says. “The show just ended after five seasons, but the president is way behind and frequently reminds those around him not to give anything away.”

He’s also awaiting the new season of Netflix’s “House of Cards,” which The Times says “starkly depicts a dysfunctional Washington — a theme that must seem all too familiar.”

Shear writes: “It may be a fool’s errand to psychoanalyze anyone — let alone a sitting president — based only on the books he reads or the music he listens to, or the television shows he watches.

“But for Mr. Obama, ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘House of Cards’ are hardly the exceptions to what has become a clear pattern. Mr. Obama is also a devotee of Showtime’s ‘Homeland,’ which offers an eerily familiar mirror to the president’s own foreign policy adventures: terrorism, Iranian nuclear negotiations, drone strikes, and an intelligence agency struggling for legitimacy with Congress and the American people.

“And the list of heavies continues.”

Obama’s choice of dramas could be “a poetic reflection,” the piece notes. “Or maybe despite his day job, the president simply enjoys the cliffhanger tension of the best dramas.”